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Forum:A recent Videssos e-mail
In light of recent dicussion about Atlantis, here is an e-mail from Steven Silver at Videssos "On 5/7/2010 5:17 PM, Michael wrote: > > > For those who have read Harry Turtledoves Atlantis series we know that Atlanits is basically the eastern seaboard of the United States down to Florida in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. But does anyone know if there are other geographical (and geological ) equivalents in Atlantis itself? I think that the Green Ridge Mountains are the Appalachians but what about the other rivers,lakes,and cities and states listed in Atlantis? Anyone want to hazard some guesses? > I've asked Harry about this, but I won't reveal his answer just yet. Also, he has a collection coming out later this year (probably in December) called something like Atlantis and Other Stories, which will include his two Atlantis novellas. Steven" :"I won't reveal his answer a question that could hardly be considered fishing for spoilers even if the series were still in progress, which it isn't anyway just yet." Well that's coy. :I had always had the sense, for some reason, that the Caribbean islands had also been shifted east. This was confirmed in LA when there was a description of an offshore island--off Atlantis's shore, not Terranova's--whose history closely matched Haiti's. :From the map on the cover--and I know trusting the covers is a fool's game--I always got the sense that the subcontinent was broken off south of the St Lawrence. In LA, they describe the northernmost state in such a way that makes it look a lot like Maine--not that it would look a lot like Quebec, not in a form recognizable to us, since the French went south, not north. In OA, when Henry sailed around the northern end of the baby continent, he described weather associated with latitudes far to the north of Montreal, but not unheard of just as far to the south of it. And points on the Atlantean map should be warmer than points on the North American map on which they're based because of the eastward shift. I think they even specifically discussed this in USA. Turtle Fan 03:32, May 8, 2010 (UTC) By the way, the title of this topic plus the fact that you've created a TWTPE section for Denmark, which the one sneak peek implied would be a major plot point, had me thinking you'd gotten a W&E spoiler. Turtle Fan 12:33, May 8, 2010 (UTC) ::Sorry to get your...interest...up(?). I was fascinated by Silver being coy, and thought I'd share it. And the Denmark thing was based on HW and W&E's summary as you intuited. Incidentally, I do think Peggy's audience with Hitler and the Denmark thing are related, and that Peggy will be a spy. Upon re-read, Constantine the Consul makes a cryptic remark about Peggy liking to screw with the Germans. I don't remember if that was ever discussed here or not. TR 18:24, May 8, 2010 (UTC) :::Re Silver's coyness: Maybe he's planning a W&E contest (does he still do those anymore?) based on matching the map of Atlantis to the map of the East Coast. The three years that I was on Videssos I noticed that he grew increasingly lazy with the contests. 2005: Dig through obscure short stories in search of hidden clues and double meanings. 2006: Do some work on the Wiki. 2007: Guess who has the first and last scenes, respectively, of IatD. (I picked the two right characters but reversed their order.) Extrapolating the pattern, three steps down from there would not be a map-matching activity. But then, I don't know what the last two contests were, or if they existed. Turtle Fan 20:00, May 8, 2010 (UTC) ::::The contest idea did occur to me. He actually hasn't done one since IatD. So he might be due. Even if he doesn't appear to be all that keen on TWTPE. TR 04:07, May 9, 2010 (UTC) :::::Oh no? Has he been critical? I wouldn't know. Turtle Fan 07:14, May 9, 2010 (UTC) ::::::Not critical. He's pretty much ignored it thus far. He hasn't written a review at his website. He always writes reviews of HT books. TR 14:43, May 9, 2010 (UTC) :::::::Hmm. That is unusual. :::::::Maybe he found it as boring as we did and decided that if he can't say something nice, he'd better not say anything at all. Considering how much he depends on remaining in HT's good graces, that's not hard to imagine. Turtle Fan 15:01, May 9, 2010 (UTC) ::::::He wasn't shy about giving MWtIH a negative review. I suppose if DelRey saw that, they might have decided not to send out a reviewer copy HW. TR 01:06, May 10, 2010 (UTC) :::::::Really? I missed that. Maybe HT told him that if he tried that again he'd lose his, HT's, endorsement? Turtle Fan 01:49, May 10, 2010 (UTC) ::::::I rather doubt HT is that thin-skinned. All we can really say is that for whatever reason, Silver didn't do a review of HW, and that's a first. TR 17:13, May 10, 2010 (UTC) :::::::Maybe he tried to read it and couldn't keep his eyes open. I think I could sympathize. :::::::Or maybe he actually had a legitimate reason. Not sure why I thought of that last. Turtle Fan 19:26, May 10, 2010 (UTC) :::Re getting my interest up: It's a bit like Nebraskan topography. You might get a momentary swell to an elevation that would go entirely unnoticed a few hundred miles farther west. I guess the Rockies in our analogy would be TL-191, which held my interest every year: first because the story was good, and later, after it started sucking, because I now had other people to geek out about it with on the message board. Turtle Fan 20:00, May 8, 2010 (UTC) :::Re Peggy in Denmark: I hope so. And not in the sense of "Well, I guess it's possible, and it would certainly be good." I'm not bursting with confidence but I do see cause to be optimistic. Especially with this comment of yours: It's awfully similar to the line with which Old Man Jacobs hooked Nellie into the spy ring. If anything is going to happen in this book to turn this series around, that would be the place to start. A White Russian dance hall in Shanghai has some intrigue to it, but that's only before you remember that it's been entrusted to Mister Intermission himself. Turtle Fan 20:00, May 8, 2010 (UTC)